By Jeff Manning | The Oregonian/OregonLive on January 08, 2017 at 3:00 PM, updated January 08, 2017 at 7:53

After more than a decade of unsuccessful efforts to eradicate the genetically modified grass it created and allowed to escape, lawn and garden giant Scotts Miracle-Gro now wants to step back and shift the burden to Oregonians.

The federal government is poised to allow that to happen by relinquishing its oversight, even as an unlikely coalition of farmers, seed dealers, environmentalists, scientists and regulators cry foul.

Climate change is no longer a distant threat, but a clear and present danger. That’s the main takeaway from the third installment of the National Climate Assessment (NCA), released this week by the White House.

The report itself is a feat of both exhaustive climate science and creative science communications. The 840-page document is packed with illustrative graphics, and the web-based version features interactivity and video. Beyond painting the national picture, the NCA presents, in the words of White House science advisor John Holdren, “unprecedented detail about regional impacts” of climate change.

Contributed by Cassandra Profitas - Ecotrope

June 12, 2013 --

Courtesy of George Waldbusser and Elizabeth Brunner of Oregon State Universityi

This image shows 1-day old Pacific oyster larvae from the same parents, raised by the Taylors Shellfish Hatchery in natural waters of Dabob Bay, Wash. The larvae on the left were reared in favorable carbonate chemistry; on the right in unfavorable chemistry.

Researchers at Oregon State University have been studying why more acidic ocean water is wiping out oyster larvae at hatcheries in the Northwest.

Outrage over the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre may or may not spur any meaningful gun control laws, but you can bet your Crayolas that it will lead to more seven-year-olds getting handcuffed and hauled away to local police precincts.

You read that right. Americans may disagree deeply about how easy it should be for a mentally ill convicted felon to purchase an AR-15, but when it comes to putting more law enforcement officers inside our schools, the National Rifle Association (NRA) and liberal Democrats like Senator Barbara Boxer are as one. And when police (or “school resource officers” as these sheriff’s deputies are often known) spend time in a school, they often deal with disorder like proper cops -- by slapping cuffs on the little perps and dragging them to the precinct.

PEJ News-Shamus Cooke, U.S. Editor- When word first arrived that the G-20 would be meeting in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, activists began organizing protest demonstrations.Events like this are what freedom of speech is made for. What better occasion to protest than a meeting of the world